House fails to pass bills to reopen parts of government

Jason Miller reports from a rally on Capitol Hill.

Two bills to reopen specific parts of the government failed Tuesday night to get
the support of two-thirds of the House members' support, thus leaving the partial
government shutdown intact to begin a second day.

Republican House lawmakers tried to push through one bill to fund the National
Park Service and another measure to fund the Veterans Affairs Department for all
of fiscal 2014. But few Democrats broke ranks and neither bill earned the two-
thirds majority to move out of the House under the suspension rules.

A third bill to fund the District of Columbia for 2014 also failed to obtain
enough votes to pass.

Even if the House would have passed any of the bills, the Senate likely would not
have voted on or approved either of them, and the White House threatened to veto
both measures.

"This is a game. There is no excuse for not opening up all of government. There is
not any excuse for leaving some employees behind while you take care of others,"
said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the minority whip, during a press conference on
Capitol Hill Tuesday before the vote on the bills. "There is no excuse for making
the people of the United States suffer without their government in operation, and
not simply selectively take some agencies and pretend you are going to drip, drip
and drip open those. It's bad for government. It's bad for the economy. It's bad
for national security. And it's bad for all people."

Rudy D'Alessandro, who works for the National Park Service, said he didn't support
reopening only part of the government.

"I think we want all federal government agencies to go back to work before any one
particular one does," D'Alessandro said after he spoke at the rally. "All of us or
none of us."

Republican aides said all three bills that were sidetracked could be brought up
again on Wednesday under rules requiring a mere majority to pass. They said the
House might also vote on a measure to reopen the hospital at the NIH, after
several Democrats cited the impact on patients.

Retroactive pay bill on hold

While those bills failed to get out of the House, Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and
Frank Wolfe (R-Va.) introduced the "Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act"
late Monday. The bill would guarantee that both those employees required to work
through the shutdown and those placed on unpaid leave receive backpay.

Moran said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is waiting to see how many sponsors
the bill picks up before bringing it to the floor for a vote. Moran said there
already are dozens and more signing up each day to sponsor the measure.

But he said unlike other shutdowns, getting federal employees backpay may not be
easy

As the shutdown enters day two, lawmakers and
representatives from the National Treasury Employees Union, the American
Federation of Government Employees, and the National Federation of Federal
Employees offered no optimism that the shutdown would be short-lived.

AFGE National President J. David Cox said the White House and Senate Democrats
better stick to their positions and not cave in on the Affordable Care Act or
these partial funding bills.

A push for a clean CR

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said Republicans should join Democrats to pass
the clean continuing resolution passed by the Senate Monday.

"I guarantee you, I've talked to many Republicans on the other side. They are not
happy, and believe me, they've indicated they will vote for that bill and we will
get our country back again," he said.

As Congress continues to debate how to reopen the government, federal employees
and their unions are trying to turn up the heat on lawmakers to pass a continuing
resolution.

The rally Tuesday repeated the often-heard message of stop using federal employees
as scapegoats.

Federal employees rallied on Capitol Hill Tuesday to let lawmakers know how they feel about the government shutdown. View a gallery of shutdown photos here. Send us your shutdown photos via email and we'll include them in the gallery. Be sure to include the photographer's name for proper photo attribution. (Photo by Jason Miller/Federal News Radio)

"Many see this as an inside the beltway issue. But that could not be further than
the truth," said Colleen Kelley, the president of NTEU. "Eight-five percent of the
federal workforce work outside the beltway in towns and communities across our
great country. I'm here for them today because all of them are being used as pawns
by some in Congress to score political points. So here we are, the first shutdown
in 17 years."

Kelley said lawmakers need to realize these workers are real people with bills to
pay, which will not wait for the government to reopen.

"They are middle America, and they live from paycheck to paycheck," she said.
"Many already have been sent in the last few months for unpaid furlough days under
the sequester. And all have had their pay froze for three years. They do not
deserve to be treated like this. This has got to end today."

IRS employee worried

George Schlaffer works for the IRS as a revenue agent in Baltimore, and is one of
those employees Kelley talked about. He was at the IRS in the 1990s during that
shutdown, but said this shutdown could have a bigger impact on his family with two
daughters in college.

He said the shutdown means the government is losing money.

"Revenue agents can't audit returns and get the tax owed to the government. I
think they've showed that revenue agents bring in $10 for every $1 we are paid,"
Schlaffer said. "From the service point of view, you can't call on the phone if
you have tax problem. The phones are shut down. The walk-ins for the elderly or
the poor are shut down. So it's not good for anyone who needs service."

He said his office continued to work up until the shutdown Tuesday. But the threat
of the shutdown was a distraction.

"It was very chaotic about whether you had to come in Tuesday or not," he said.
"It was a joke. It was a circus. So there was wasted time and effort because of
the stress and anxiety."

Schlaffer added the continued attacks on federal employees are taking their toll.
He said long-time employees are fed up and retiring, and others who have been
there only a short amount of time are looking for new jobs in the private sector.

Congressman John Delaney (D-Md.) said the continued attack on federal employees is
part of a small minority in Congress who don't believe the government adds value
to society.

The Senate is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and the House is
expected to come back at 10 a.m.